Officials Plan Public Meeting On Buffalo Reef Pollution

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LAKE LINDEN, Mich. (AP) - Government officials will host a public meeting to discuss protecting crucial fish spawning areas on a Lake Superior reef in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency created a task force to deal with the threat to Buffalo Reef. The meeting will be Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the Lake Linden-Hubbell High School Auditorium in Houghton County.

Waste materials called "stamp sands" were dumped into the lake during the 20th century copper mining era. They've drifted toward the reef and could smother it.

Nearly one-quarter of the annual lake trout yield from Lake Superior's Michigan waters comes from within 50 miles of Buffalo Reef.

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality is considering a request to allow dredging more than 200,000 cubic yards of stamp sands from the lake.